Safe Return Doubtful

It has been the mid-term holiday for schools in Bavaria this last week in Germany. I just met a family on the summit of Kreuzberg and the parents grabbed the chance for their two sons to practice their English, so we chatted for a while. The mid-term holiday varies between regions more than it does in England, it can be from this last week until the last week of October. This holiday began with Unity Day on 3rd October, so it has been rather more than a week. The Germans (and Austrians) have the most public holidays in Europe with 9 national days and 4 to be used regionally. That compares to 8 in the UK, who have the least in Europe. 

It has been more difficult in Saxony and Bavaria to find quiet places in the mountains, even during the week. I moved on from Erlbach, which was a good place to stay and get into the hills, on Wednesday and drove an hour or so to Rothenkirchen which is in the Franconian district south of Thuringia, famous for the Toy Museum in the nearby town of Sonneberg, and in the shadow of the Thuringian slate mountains. There was a lot of rain later on Wednesday so it was an afternoon largely confined to the van. 

On Thursday I drove a couple of hours further westwards into the Harz mountains and the Rhön Valley to the monastery almost at the summit of Kreuzberg mountain, at 860 metres above sea level. 

The monastery was founded by Franciscans in 1644, completed in 1692, and a brewery was attached to it in 1731. Kreuzberg mountain was already a place of pilgrimage. The monks stopped brewing beer in 1992, concerned that it was proving too much of a diversion to their devotions. Soon after, the building was taken over as a commercial venture, and the difference between here and the few traditional Trappiste monasteries that remain brewing beer in Belgium is stark. Three types of beer are brewed, a pilsner, a bock and a dubbel.

There is an expensive restaurant as well, and late this afternoon, the outdoor seating area was busy, despite it being 5C. It is Octoberfest in Bavaria at the moment, though all the promotion on the website and in other media says that the monastery does not promote Octoberfest, or ‘bachelor parties or alcoholic club outings’. Fortunately the car park is vast, though it was also busy, with a coach and two minibuses waiting for their drunken cargo.

On a cloudless autumnal late afternoon we took another walk up to the summit of the mountain, where we met the German family I spoke of at the start, then descended for a beer at the monastery. It was okay, but not a patch on the delights their Belgian counterpart produce. I will be there on Sunday, and have planned to take in a few of the small breweries again, as I did in January. 

The rain of Thursday has gone, replaced by showers but with little wind, and cold for the time of year, below zero last night, and already, at 6 pm, just a degree above zero.

The tourist enterprise of the monastery does not stop at food and drink, they have a hotel and other accommodation and offer a range of outdoor sports on the mountain. But this morning it was quiet, and Roja and I took four hours out roaming various trails in the surrounding forest.